This morning’s swim was supposed to be a timed 1500m (to the buoy and back), with a ‘cool down’ 1500 lap. I knew we were in for an interesting swim when we saw the size of the waves along Ali’i as we drove to the pier. Thank goodness for dramamine, as I would have been green within the first 200m for sure. (And also thank you, Carmen, for lending me your goggles since mine were in the van—although I would have benefitted much more from them, had I not worn them upside-down for the first half of the swim!! Duh–this is what happens after 6 days of epic training 
) Sad not to see all the colorful fish with the turbulent ocean…
But no rest for epicWomen! On to the breakfast refuel and ready for the final required ride of the camp….and I needed to change my rear tire (why is it always the rear one?!), which had gone flat overnight. It turned out there was a tiny piece of wire embedded in it, causing a slow leak….(which left me wondering how much of the volcano i rode on an under inflated tire?!). Of course today’s ride included one final KOM TT up Hualalai between the Kuakini highway and the upper road (the Mamalahoa road), a 5k piece that I soldiered up at my current asthma threshold (thinking I need to look into a better inhaler when I get back home…). Then a lovely ride south and back down Napoopoo road for a lunch stop and photo shoot across from the Captain Cook monument with everyone sporting our Zoot tanks, shorts, and runners. The surf was so strong that we had our backsides splashed from the waves crashing above the retaining wall we’d posed along! Then back on our bikes for a very hot grind up to the Mamalahoa and north toward town (with a bit of tack-on mileage along the QueenK to reach 90k), then we all converged at the Basik Cafe for acai bowls–yum! And of course our day wouldn’t be complete without a 10k run along Ali’i, which provided a fair amount of distraction with spectacular views of the crashing surf. My run felt pretty smooth considering this past week’s training–i had the thought that maybe I need to move here to improve my running….?!!
One last round of massages for us, a debrief and to bed for our final epic day! (Wow–a week ago, that concept felt nearly impossible!)